I feel extremely lucky to have known these fine people over the years, but I hope Ruth doesn't read this story. That's because I have spent the past 32 years insulting her, and I wouldn't want her to know that I had said anything nice about her!

A helping hand

Several years ago, during the time before it was butchered up into 10-acre tracts and covered with houses, I rented a farm across from the Tekotte homestead.

One morning in November I was plowing right across from the Tekotte house. As I was turning at the far end of the field, I lost the lynch pin from one of the lift arms, and the plow became partially unhooked. I cut some barbed wire off the fence and fastened the arm in position temporarily, then headed across the field toward the Tekotte's house to see if Jay had a spare pin that I could borrow.

He was in the house. I told him what I needed, and he found several pins in a parts bin in his machine shed. When we got back to the house, Jay said, "Bud, come in and warm up while you're here. You've got all day to plow."

'Mr. Insult' and 'Mrs. Nice'

Jay and I sat down at the kitchen table, then I gave Ruth a couple of mild insults before asking her for a cup of coffee. She informed me that she didn't have any made, but that she would make some if I wanted it. I told her that seemed like the logical thing to do. So she put on a pot. We sat and visited while the coffee perked.

Since this was before the era of automatic coffee machines, it was at least 20 minutes before the coffee was done perking. When it was ready, Ruth got up and poured me a steaming cup of coffee. Just as she set the cup on the table in front of me, I jumped up and exclaimed, "Ruth, I don't have time to sit here and drink coffee. I've got to go plow!" I grabbed my coat and was out the door before she could say a word.

I walked back across the road, installed the borrowed pin, and spent the rest of the day plowing. A couple of days later I met Jay in the road and we stopped to visit. Jay warned me, "Bud, you better not come by my house for a few days unless you know I'm home. Because if you stop over before that old woman gets over her mad, she's going to kill you, and I need to be there so I can notify your next of kin."

It took several days, but Ruth finally settled down. I don't know if she ever forgave me completely, but at least she got over her mad.

These days I don't stop to visit Ruth as often as I should anymore. But there's no doubt in my mind that if I dropped by there today and asked her for a cup of coffee, if she didn't have a fresh pot made, Ruth would get the coffee maker out and brew some up for me.